Introduction
Seattle to Honolulu
Honolulu to Auckland
Auckland to Christchurch
Wellington to Rotorua
Auckland to San Francisco
San Francisco to Seattle

                                                                                                                                                                      

Tuesday 08th October 2013

My brain is absolutely worthless I think to myself while sitting on the 405 in the truck on my way to work, for the second time that morning. I had already spent over an hour and a half in the truck due to traffic and also the fact that for the second time in a month I had forgotten my passport at home on an international trip. Driving back from the Canadian border is a hassle, forgetting my passport when I am travelling to New Zealand is a whole other story. Thankfully I wasn’t leaving that day.

Work was sending me to New Zealand for two weeks and thankfully I wasn’t having to pay. But unfortunately the flights out were early in the morning so rather than have to battle peak hour traffic on the day I have to leave, I thought it smart that I could do it the day before and stay by the airport the night before. At least when I leave my passport at home the day before I have plenty of time to go back and get it. Even if it takes me 2 hours to get to work and I am 20 mins late (I would of been early had I remembered it but that would of been fine).

I worked away getting all the usual last minute things done and finished off my day by calling the bank and letting them know that I was heading to NZ and to make sure that they didn’t decline any transactions. By the time I made up my 20 minutes of lateness and headed out of the office, the sun was already starting to slowly set and I hit the streets towards the south and my hotel for the evening.

I had looked around for airport hotels and they were all $150+ but the good thing about Seattle’s airport is even though it is south of the city and has a lot of hotels around it, there are a few outlying suburbs (like Renton, Kent, Tukwila) that are about 10-12 minutes drive away and offer much better value. I had managed to pick up a great rate on the IHG Friends and Family rate for the Holiday Inn & Suites Kent that included breakfast and wifi for like $95 all in. Quite a bargain really. All in all it was just a bed for the night and a quick workout in the morning. I made pretty good time and by the time I finished off a last minute thing online, I took the truck out to grab some gas and top it off and some food for me. Feeding the truck as well as me… simple plan really.

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

I grabbed some dinner at the L&L Hawiian BBQ in Renton for the evening (fitting realy) taking my tasty goodness back to the hotel where I could watch tv in piece and quiet, read some emails and hit the sack. The rooms at the Holiday Inn Kent were not overly big and it is more a motel style than anything (2 story, walk up, around a central courtyard) and I could of pictured this in any out of the way small town. But they were clean, comfortable and warm because the night sure wasn’t (although the room heated up a hell of a lot more than planned). I hit the sack around the usual time but wake up wasn’t far off.

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

Wednesday 09th October 2013

Waking up at 4am is never pleasant, but considering I barely slept at all, getting up meant that I could hit the gym for a bit. I had to negotiate with check in the night before to access the gym that early as for some reason they don’t allow use before 5am. Which is wierd because it is not staffed or monitored. I had agreed not to use the treadmill so as to keep noise and pounding on the floor to a minimum, so 6 miles on the exercise bike it was. Can’t complain really, it was either that or running outside in the frigid cold (Bothell was 37F that morning, not sure what it was in Kent). I will take a lighter workout over freezing myself to death any day.

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

By the time I cleaned up and checked out, breakfast was opening up at 6am (haven’t they ever heard of early morning departures for a hotel that advertises themselves as “Airport”) so I grabbed my complimentary breakfast, which was as I expected, pretty basic but still good. Unfortunately my desire for a good bowl of oatmeal was failed when all they had was quaker instant packets (which I despise for the amount of sugar in it) so I stuck with a quick bagel and a banana. Coffee & breakfast consumed and I hit the road to the airport.

From AOT NZ Megafamil – South Island

The Holiday Inn was clean, comfortable and good value for what I got out of it. Sure it isn’t directly next to the airport and about a 10-12 minute drive away, but at half the cost, free breakfast and wifi… I won’t complain.